Simon Crane was brought onboard to assist in the reputed 4-week reshoots. The THR report didn’t identify whether he’ll take on the role of stunt coordinator or second unit director.

As the name implies, a stunt coordinator is in charge of casting stuntmen and doubles, as well as choreographing the stunt portions of the film. On the other hand, a second unit director handles the second unit crew that takes supplementary footage, like establishing shots and scene inserts.

Crane got his start as a stuntman for the James Bond films A View to Kill and The Living Daylights, before moving on to become the stunt coordinator for Licence to Kill and Goldeneye. His impressive resume includes doing stuntwork in Aliens, Indiana Jones, Batman and the original Total Recall.

As his Hollywood career grew, Crane was promoted to stunt coordinator for Titanic, Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, World War Z and Edge of Tomorrow. He also has experience being the second unit director for The World is Not Enough and Men in Black 3.

Crane (right) even appeared as one of the Eurocopter pilots in Goldeneye!

Interestingly, the appointment of Crane coincides with the rumors that Chris McQuarrie is involved in the scriptwriting. McQuarrie also did work on World War Z and Edge of Tomorrow. But since he flatly denied any role in the reshoots, Chris might have recommended Crane for the stunts after having worked with him.

What does this tell us?

A famous stunt coordinator with a solid resume was just hired for Rogue One

The reshoots could involve new stunt scenes, more than just the “character development” and “talking in cockpits” claim by Entertainment Weekly

Even if Crane was hired as second unit director instead of stunt coordinator, his work will likely involve action sequences, just as he did on Tomb Raider and World War Z

The bottom line is, you don’t enlist someone like Crane to shoot quiet character building scenes around the Rebel campfire. Something is definitely up in Pinewood.

Either way, this is exciting news when you hire a guy who can do skydiving, scuba diving, karate, fencing and even gymnastics. It also doesn’t hurt that Crane was 007’s stunt double in The Living Daylights.